Ellison Back On Oracle's Payroll For First Time In Four Years

The 59-year-old billionaire began collecting an annual salary of $900,000 on Sept. 1, Oracle said in a required Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure about executive compensation. Ellison also will be eligible for a bonus of up to $4.1 million, depending on Oracle's profit during the fiscal year ending in May 2004, according to the documents.

It will mark the first time Oracle has paid its chief executive officer a salary or bonus since June 1999 when Ellison agreed to surrender his paycheck in exchange for 40 million stock options. At that time, Ellison received an annual salary of $1 million.

Ellison's sacrifice has paid off richly so far.

The 40 million options he received in June 1999 were priced at $6.87 apiece, making them worth $264 million, based on Oracle's market value Monday. The company's shares gained 40 cents to close at $13.48 Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Oracle stock enriched Ellison even before his option award. As the company's co-founder, Ellison owns a 26.4 percent Oracle stake worth nearly $19 billion as of Monday. He ranks as the nation's ninth richest person, based on Forbes magazine's annual wealth survey.

Since May 1999, Ellison has exercised 28.5 million options to realize gains totaling $821.6 million, according to SEC documents. That figure includes stock option gains of $40.5 million in Oracle's most recent fiscal year.

Ellison is trying to boost Oracle's earnings and stock by buying rival PeopleSoft Inc. in a $7.5 billion hostile takeover. Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft has twice rejected the unsolicited bid, but Ellison has refused to back off.

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